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Lee Harwood
Travers Rafe Lee Harwood (6 June 1939 - 2015) was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival.Peter Robinson, Lee Harwood obituary, The Guardian, 11 August 2015. Web, Oct. 3, 2015. Life Harwood was born in Leicester to Grace (Ladkin) and maths teacher Wilfred Travers Lee-Harwood, who were then living in Chertsey, Surrey. His father was an army reservist and called up as war started; after the evacuation from Dunkirk he was posted to Africa until 1947 and saw little of his son.Not the Full Story: 6 Interviews with Lee Harwood, Exeter, 2008, pp.19-20 Between 1958-61 Harwood studied English at Queen Mary College, University of London and continued living in London until 1967. During that time he worked as a monumental mason's mate, a librarian and a bookshop assistant. He was also a member of the Beat scene and in 1963 was involved in editing the one issue magazines Night Scene and Night Train featuring their work, as did Soho and Horde the following year. Tzarad, which he began editing on his own in 1965, ran for two more issues (1966, 1969) and signalled his growing interest in and involvement with the New York School of poets.See the 1972 interview with Eric Mottram in Poetry Information #14 (London, autumn/winter 1975-6), pp.4-18 It was during this time that he began to engage with French poetry and started on his translations of Tristan Tzara. In 1967 he moved to Brighton where, with the exception of some time in Greece and the United States, he has continued to live.Britain’s Best Kept Literary Secret lives in Brighton In Brighton he worked as a bookshop manager, a bus conductor, and a Post Office counter clerk.The fly-leaf of his collection HMS Little Fox details the succession of his jobs until then He also became a union official and involved with the Labour Party in its radical years, even standing (unsuccessfully) in a local election.http://robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2005/12/robert-sheppard-review-of-harwoods.html At the Poetry Society Harwood was identified with the radicals but did not join in their block resignation in 1977, arguing that 'as a trade unionist I've never believed in resignation as a useful political weapon - it always seems best to work from inside an organisation'.Barry, Peter: Poetry Wars - the battle of Earls Court, Cambridge, 2006, pp.93-4 At that time, there was an identifiable political element to Harwood's poetry, discernible in the volume "All The Wrong Notes" (1981).Not the Full Story, Six Interviews with Kelvin Corcoran, Exeter, 2008, p.72 In 1961 he married his first wife, Jenny Goodgame, by whom he had a son, Blake, in 1962. After the breakdown of this marriage, he met the photographer Judith Walker while a writer in residence at the Aegean School of Fine Arts in Paros, Greece, and married her in 1974. Photographs by her are used in his collections Boston-Brighton and All the wrong notes. Harwood and Judith have a son, Rafe (born 1977), and a daughter, Rowan (born 1979). Harwood's first book, title illegible, was published by Bob Cobbing's Writers Forum in 1965. His Crossing the Frozen River: Selected poems appeared in 1988 but is now out of print; Shearsman has since published both a Collected Poems (2004) and a new Selected Poems (2008). Writing Harwood's early writing is similar to the poetry of the New York School, especially that of John Ashbery, whom he met in Paris in 1965. What he was aiming for, he said in a 1972 interview,Poetry Information #14 (London, autumn/winter 1975-6), pp.4-18 was an unfinished quality containing a mosaic of information. Robert Sheppard has described Harwood's style as at once 'distanced and intimate'.Not the Full Story, Six Interviews with Kelvin Corcoran, Exeter, 2008, p.62 Later, after discussion with F.T.Prince, he aimed for a certain elegance where references to the English colonial enterprise function as an alternative cultural mythology. There is about this writing an aspect of collage (which Harwood likens to similar procedures in cinema and painting) which he takes even further in the collections published during the 1970s. Here lyric lines alternate with scraps of conversation, blocks of prose or long-lined verse. In his later work, however, some critics have discerned a falling off of immediacyChicago Review 53.1, Spring 2007, p175-6 while, in the view of others, such as Alan Baker, Harwood 'returned to form' with the books ‘Morning Light’ (1998) and ‘Evening Star’ (2004).http://www.leafepress.com/litter/harwoodreview01.html Publications Poetry *''title illegible''. London: Writers Forum, 1965. *''The Man with Blue Eyes''. New York: Angel Hair Books, 1966. *''The White Room''. London: Fulcrum Press, 1968. *''The Beautiful Atlas''. Brighton, UK: Ted Kavanagh, 1969. *''Landscapes''. London: Fulcrum Press, 1969. *''The Sinking Colony''. London: Fulcrum Press, 1970. *''H&''. Hove, UK: Caliban Press, 1970. *''Penguin Modern Poets 19'' (by John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, & Tom Raworth). Harmondsworth, UK, & Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1971. *''Freighters; from 'Notes of a post office clerk'.'' Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Pig Press, 1975. *''HMS Little Fox''. London: Oasis Books, 1975. *''Notes of a Post Office Clerk''. Gloucester, MA: Bezoar, 1976. *''Boston - Brighton''. London: Oasis Books, 1977. *''Wish You Were Here'' (with Antony Lopez). Deal, Kent, UK: Transgravity Press, 1979. *''All the Wrong Notes'' (photos by Judith Walker). Durham, UK: Pig Press, 1981. *''Faded Ribbons''. Leamington Spa, UK: Other Branch Readings, 1982. *''Monster Masks''. Durham, UK: Pig Press, 1985. *''Crossing the Frozen River: Selected poems''. London: Paladin, 1988. *''Rope Boy to the Rescue: Poems''. Twickenham, UK: North & South, 1988. *''In the Mists: Mountain poems''. Nottingham, UK: Slow Dancer Press, 1993. *''Morning Light''. London: Slow Dancer Press, 1998. *''Etruscan Reader VI'' (by Robin Blaser, Barbara Guest, & Lee Harwood). South Devonshire, UK: Etruscan Books, 1998. Search results=Robin Blaser, WorldCat, Web, Mar. 28, 2017. *''Evening Star''. Chilwell, Nottingham, UK: Leafe Press, 2004. *''Collected Poems, 1964-2004. Exeter, UK: Shearsman Books, 2004. *''Selected Poems. Exeter, UK: Shearsman Books, 2008. *''The Orchid Boat''. London: Enitharmon Press, 2014. Short fiction *''Old Bosham Bird Watch, and other stories''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Pig Press, 1977. *''Wine Tales: Un roman devin'' (with Richard Caddel). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Galloping Dog Press, 1984. *''Dream Quilt: 30 assorted stories''. Nottingham, UK: Slow Dancer, 1985. *''Assorted Stories: Prose works'' (illustrated by Peter Bailey). Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1987. Other *''Captain Harwood's Log of Stern Statements and Stout Sayings''. London: Writers Forum, 1973. *''Tristan Tzara: A bibliography''. London: Aloes Books, 1974. *''Not The Full Story: Six interviews With Lee Harwood'' (with Kelvin Corcoran). Exeter, UK: Shearsman Books, 2008. Translated *Tristan Tzara, A Poem Sequence. Gillingham, Kent, UK: Arc, 1969 **revised as Cosmic Realities: Vanilla tobacco drawings (bilingual edition). Tormorden, UK: Arc Publications, 1975. *Tristan Tzara, Destroyed Days: A selections of poems, 1943-55. Wivenhoe Park, Essex, UK: Voiceprint Editions, 1971. *Tristan Tzara, Selected poems. London: Trigram Press, 1975. *Tristan Tzara, Chanson Dada: Selected poems. Toronto: Coach House 1987 **revised edition, Boston, MA: Black Widow Press, 2005. *Tristan Tzara, The Glowing Forgotten: A selection of poems. Nottingham, UK: Leafe Press, 2003."Books by Lee Harwood," Collected Poems, 1964-2004 (Exeter, UK: Shearsman Books, 2004). Shearsman.com, Web, Sep. 14, 2014. Edited *''The Empty Hill: Memories and praises of Paul Evans, 1945-1991'' (edited with Peter Bailey). Hove, Sussex, UK: Skylark Press, 1992. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Lee Harwood, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 14, 2014. Audio / video *''Landscapes'' (LP). UK: Stream, 197-? *''Dada Voices'' (with Dawn Ades; cassette). Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK: Open University / Artarmon, NSW: Peter Leyden, 1977. *''The Chart Table: Poems, 1965-2002'' (CD). London: Optic Nerve, 2004. Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat. See also * List of British poets References External links ;Poems *"The Seaside" * Lee Harwood (United Kingdom, 1939) at Poetry International (6 poems). *Lee Harwood at PoemHunter (8 poems). ;Audio / video *Lee Harwood at PennSound *Lee Harwood at YouTube ;About *Lee Harwood obituary at The Guardian *Lee Harwood Interview at The Argotist *Guest Review: Thompson on Harwood at Eyewear: The blog. Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:English poets Category:People from Chertsey Category:British Poetry Revival Category:Alumni of Queen Mary, University of London Category:People from Leicester Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets